A Whole New World

Thanks Prof. Walls. Love this blog option!

I choose to comment on Seth Godin’s blog post entitled “Sixty to Zero”. In this post, Seth gives a great metaphor for what marketers and most, if not all, industries are going through in today’s world (i.e. major shifts in the way things are marketed). He compares vehicle specs focusing on “acceleration, [and never] braking” to marketers and industry leaders focusing on revving up and not slowing down in order to switch gears into other directions. These other directions or more fittingly, wake-up calls, are Seth’s way of jarring us all into seeing that major shifts are already coming. Are you ready? Are we ready?

Seth goes on to make a series of obvious and not so obvious (at least to me) predictions that are already occurring in today’s market. One, the U.S. newsprint industry will be dead by 2012. How will that affect you and your business? Two, “90% of sales will come from WOM or digital promotion by 2011”, how do you prepare for that? Three, the “effort to outsource data manipulation will decrease until it’s cheaper and faster than using in-house talent”, what are you doing to stay on top of that trend?

Each of these predictions is filled with demise and destruction of industries or business practices, which have been the norm for so long. In Seth’s perspective, it is like he is slapping us all in the face in order to get us moving into another direction. And he is. My favorite line in his post is when he says that “it seems to me that if you know the old world is about to end, you’d run like crazy to master the new one.” However, this line is so obscure and full of urgency that it’s almost frightening. What is the new world like? What should I master? These just so happen to be questions I’ve been toying with myself.

I don’t have many negative critiques on Seth’s post mostly due to the fact that I agree with it all. I think that is why I choose it, because it spoke to me the most. However, it would be nice if he had expanded on more changes he foresees coming down the pipeline, and most importantly, how he views this new world we are all entering. Hey Seth, got any words of wisdom for new graduates???

Honestly though these changes going on can be scary, they can also be full of opportunities for new inventions. I agree with Seth that the old models are dying but I also am a bit lost when I think of how to conquer the new models. It seems as if the old model infrastructure is still around and the new model is full of true leaders as well as pretenders feeding off the temporary chaos of change and trying to make a quick buck. Seth never mentions this, but I hope he would agree with me. If I could ask Seth to expand on this post (which I might), I would ask him how do you decipher the good leaders of the new world from the pretend leaders? Or, do you simply put faith in yourself and lead with an invention of your own?

In one of the hyperlinks within Seth’s post, it directs you to a New York Times article in the Opinions section. The articles is a NY Times journalist speaking with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, about the current demise of the traditional newspaper industry. In the interview, Mr. Schmidt said something that correlated well with Seth’s post. He says: ““The best way to get out of this [industry meltdown] is to invent a new product. That’s the way Google thinks. Incumbents very seldom invent the future.”